Description

1945 Brooklyn Brown Dodgers Signed Payroll Checks (55) with
Oscar Charleston. Though the lifespan of the Brooklyn Brown
Dodgers franchise (and the chaotic United States Negro Baseball
League to which it belonged) was a brief two seasons (1945-46), the
historical importance of the team resonates to this day as it
represented Branch Rickey's cautious first steps toward integrating
Major League Baseball. It was the Hall of Fame executive who
persuaded Joe Hall to relocate his Hilldale franchise to Brooklyn,
and to install Negro League legend Oscar Charleston as manager, so
that he could join Dodger scouts in assessing African-American
talent in his own backyard. Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, and
Don Newcombe were among the players evaluated during this
period.

From a financial standpoint, the club was little better than a
disaster, typically drawing just 2,000 fans for doubleheaders at
their Ebbets Field home park, with Rickey himself commonly among
them. But the research proved invaluable, establishing the Brown
Dodgers as one of the unsung heroes of baseball history. The
fifty-five payroll checks featured here date to May and June of
that first season in Flatbush, with each signed by team owner Joe
Hall and endorsed on verso by the payee. Most notable among these
Brown Dodgers is Hall of Famer Oscar Charleston, who endorses his
check twice in bold black fountain pen ink. It's one of just three
known Charleston checks, the most recent to surface having sold in
the Heritage April 2010 Signature Auction for $35,850. The check
remains in fine, undamaged condition with no creasing, staining or
tearing. The balance of checks exhibit an occasional center fold
line but are otherwise free of noteworthy flaws. A full accounting
of the payees/signers will be available on our website at
www.HA.com/Sports. Full LOA from PSA/DNA. Full LOA from James
Spence Authentication.